Tara Hall came into the expectation for the dance team season to be tough. She is a sophomore at Nevada High School. She was excited that Tanner Messerli had been hired to coach this year, and Tara knew that this year would be tougher than the last. She was also excited to have some amazing new talent on the team.
This season the dance team has been volunteering a lot. The ABWA Craft Fair in November is their biggest time for volunteering. They all had long shifts all weekend and also helped vendors set up and tear down.
“Something that happened recently was our dance team clinic. We got to teach short, one minute dances to younger girls and also got to practice our state dances in front of an audience,” said Hall. “It was so much fun and really bonded our team.”
One thing the dance team is working on is getting ready for state. They have three dances and it’s going to be in Wells Fargo Arena this year. State is December 5-6, and they get the opportunity to perform both days.
“It truly is crunch time right now,” said Hall. “We practice every weekend and come state week we will be practicing every single night.”
“I love dance team. I have been in many sports in my life, from track, softball, gymnastics, basketball or soccer, and I’ve never really fit in anywhere. With dance team we are all about sharing emotions and connecting with the dance that we are trying to portray.”
“Dance has been nothing but difficult, but so very rewarding,” said Hall. “I haven’t been in dance for 10-15 years like these girls,” she said. “I’m a fluffy girl who just learned how to dance two years ago. Dance also helped me get out of the darkest period of my life. It gave me something to focus my energy on. It also gave me something to create. Dance is something that I have worked very hard at, and it makes me so proud.”
Tanner Messerli, the Nevada Dance Team coach, has been teaching dance locally for five years and hopes to coach at Nevada for a long time. The team has ten students out this year. The team’s first performance was at a high school football game.
The first state solo competition was November 2. Their next competition is State on December 5th and 6th.
The team’s practice times are Sundays from 4:30-7:30. A new tradition is having Sunday only practices to let all members on the dance team be involved in other sports and other activities.
They also carried on the tradition to volunteer once a month as a whole team.
Everyone as a team travels to each competition but the state solo participation was optional.
Messerli is happy to be coaching in Nevada and is excited to see what the future holds for the dance team.
Article contributed by Addy Verville.
